Justin Verlander earned his 11th consecutive victory and the Tigers won their 11th win in a row with a 5-0 win over the struggling Chicago White Sox on Tuesday night. Verlander picked up his 23rd victory as he threw seven shutout innings, gave up 6 hits, and struck out six. The Tigers have won 21 out of the past 25 games increasing their division lead to 12.5. On August 19th, the lead was only 1.5 games over Cleveland as the Tigers hosted the Indians. They swept the Indians that weekend and eventually never looked back.

The Tigers wrap up the series with the White Sox on Wednesday afternoon and then head off to Oakland for a 4 game series. It’s possible the Tigers could wrap up their first division title in 24 years in Oakland as their magic number is down to 4.

Back to Verlander, it’s hard to imagine he will not win the AL Cy Young. The real debate will be what kind of consideration will he get for AL MVP based on his stats – MLB leader in wins and strikeouts. He also has the potential to win 25 games. Of course, there are other AL MVP candidates – Boston 1B Adrian Gonzalez, New York Yankees CF Curtis Granderson, and Toronto OF Jose Bautista. Let the debate begin….